A/N: This fic is how I generally see the prom episode panning out from the perspective of Finn. I know what's going on with Rachel is more complicated, but Finn knows, and I make that clear—and there's nothing he can really do about it.

I forgot about the promo pic of Quinn singing what has to be "Take My Breath Away" during Finchel's slow dance in her wheelchair—so perhaps she reveals herself in the hallways, so the whole school doesn't see. Otherwise, I still generally see this happening.

"Finn!" Quinn's voice calls from behind.

Finn swirls around, almost clocking a freshman with his books. Embarrassed, he ends up overshooting looking down and is staring at Quinn's feet. Can we try that again? He quickly looks up, hoping no one noticed.

"How's Rachel?" she asks with a sweet grin."

"Calm … Weirdly calm. She keeps saying everything's fine. Even when no one asks. Everything's fine. And-and she sits up real stiff and straight all the time, like her brain's being taken over by aliens."

"Oh," Quinn says, and he knows the pause that follows is her calculating how much time can pass before she can change topics. Everyone does that when they ask him about her. They're all afraid to ask Rachel herself, and he can't really blame them.

"Hi, Rachel!" Quinn greets in a high pitched, cheery voice, and Finn shudders a little when he realizes it sounds just like Rachel when she saw Quinn for the first time after her accident. The NYADA audition was Rachel's crash.

"I'm glad you're here, Rachel, 'cause I wanted you to be a part of this, too."

Rachel nods and pulls her lips up into a bigger smile. Knowing she's faking—like all her smiles this week (well, maybe not all; he thinks he's actually made some pretty good jokes lately), and Finn puts his arm around her.

"I kinda wanna run for prom queen again. I mean, look at me! How inspiring to see what I've overcome..

Finn and Rachel fiercely nod, and Rachel says "Yeah!" in a way that Finn knows means she still feels guilty about her wedding being the reason for her in that chair and… inspiring people.\

And he's seen her when she tries to reach up to her locker—and refusing his help—and that jaded look in her eyes she has when people ask how physical therapy is going.

And he feels awful, too.

I mean, you think he'd be used to it 'cause of Artie, but Quinn could walk so much longer. And, you know, more recently.

Then she just couldn't.

"Rachel and I'll totally vote for you, Quinn," Finn says with a smile.

"Thanks, but that's not exactly what I wanted to ask. I've done my research for years, and I know that, by a vast majority, the winning prom royalty are a pair that runs together. Last year was just a freak accident. You know, being a mean prank. Anyway! My chances would be much higher … if I ran with a guy. Namely, you, Finn. I wanted Rachel here because, well, seeing as you're engaged, and I'm your friend, Rachel, I wouldn't want you to think I'm trying to sneak around behind your back. So. Is that okay?"

Finn's mouth and eyes open in confusion and shock—and why was she looking at Rachel, as if he didn't matter?

"Sure, Quinn, it's fine!" Rachel sputtered out.

Finn shot her a look of shock from her to Quinn and back to Rachel again. He was absolutely incredulous that this was happening. Did Rachel just pimp him out to Quinn?

"Thanks! I have the posters mostly made, already, so I'll bring them tomorrow. Finn, you can put them up for me, right? Since I can't …"

"S-sure!" Finn regurgitated his response as Quinn rolled away.

Then he turned to Rachel in a flash. He was pretty sure she wasn't breathing.

"Rachel! You were so excited about prom being our night! Why did you do that?"

"I couldn't say no to her in .. that! And I didn't hear you protest, either …"

"Well, yeah, but—"

Then, taking a deep breath, Rachel strides away, saying, "Everything is fine," and he's pretty sure it isn't.

When he puts up the poster the next day, it feels weird. Like, really weird. He feels like he's Marty McFly, and he traveled back to a year ago (which, actually, is probably better than what actually happened to Marty McFly; if he was conceived on a pinball machine, he doesn't even want to know how his mom and dad acted in public when they first fell for one another).

Anyway, Rachel's right next to him, looking mopey because she doesn't think he's looking (the other face she has is just pissed, though not as often as mopey, thankfully). As he puts up the poster, Rachel weakly asks people to nominate him and Quinn, and one girl is confused and says to her friend as they walk away, "So he went back to blondie again … Figures."

Then he knows that next sound. He knows that sound very well. She's breathing deeply through her nose; just one inhale and one exhale—and he kinda wishes he had yelled down to those girls that though Quinn was running for queen, Rachel was still totally his queen.

Rachel is suddenly stroking his upper arm with her thumb, and it kinda feels good, so he turns and smiles at her. She then reaches up and takes his cheek in her hand. He pulls her close to him, and she lays a wet one on him.

A really wet—and long—one! And her hands stroke a long way from his shoulder to his elbow. Then her tongue slips into his mouth, and his arms envelope her whole body and close what little space there was between them. Her thumb strokes his earlobe, and she makes a purring noise that makes his knees go weak.

He hears more than a few cat calls from passersby.

When the kiss ends, Finn asks, with a cocky little smile, "What was that?"

"I just want to make sure the school knows that you're still mine," and then she raises her voice at the next part and looks to where those girls walked away, "and not Blondie's."

Then she slowly walks away in that I-know-you're-gonna-admire-my-ass way.

What is it with her seeing him put up posters?

Later that day, he sees Rachel handing out campaign pins, and he's almost scared to approach her 'cause it looks like she might explode.

When he hazards a "hello" and offers to take them from her, she says, "That's it! I'm not going. You and Quinn have a nice time! Kurt, Blaine, Puck, and Becky, and I are having an anti-prom party to protest this trite yearly tradition. I'd like it if you would come, but I won't tear you away from your duties as Mr. Popular."

"What? Rachel, that's not fair, and you know it."

Rachel looked immediately sorry. "I know … I'm sorry. We both got ourselves into this…" She sighs.

"Rachel, you have to come. This'll be our only chance to enjoy a prom together."

"We won't even be together that much because Quinn will have a monopoly over you that night, and I can't say no to her."

"Rachel. Come here." He takes her hands into his. "I'm all yours. The whole school knows we're engaged. You'll have me the whole night except for when the nominees have to go onstage… And maybe I'll make the rounds, like, once with her—but just… help me out and put your foot down, okay?"

"Look, I'm done worrying about this. Kurt had an idea that I could deal with this without having to be a bad friend to Quinn. We—we may not be able to have our dance, but we can still have our prom night," she says, biting her lip and letting out a small, wanton giggle.

Finn really liked the way that sounded more than he wanted to let on, but he managed a "What?"

"Kurt, Blaine, Puck, and Becky, and I are having an anti-prom party at the hotel… Would you come with me? Get to the dance a little late? We could get our own room. I'll give you a little good luck charm."

Hell, yeah!

"Sounds awesome. Can I convince you to let me bring you to the dance after?" he says as he put his hand on the small of her back.

"We'll see."

When Finn knocks on the hotel room Rachel texted to him, he was a bit surprised to find Puck open the door. His best friend looks him up and down in playful suspicion as Finn plays with the corsage case he has in his hand. Puck's wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and he wonders if he should have come in casual clothes, then gone back home to put on the suit.

"Traitor! He's not one of us!" Puck cries to the bathroom, where Finn assumes Rachel is.

"Too bad! I invited him!" he hears Rachel's muffled voice reply.

Puck opens the door all the way for Finn, and he sees Kurt and Blaine are dressed up, as if they were going to prom. He's relieved he won't be the one tool dressed up in the room. He then sees Becky, and she's in her Cheerios uniform.

"I was just messing with you, bro," Puck says as the friends sit down. Then he lowers his voice: "I saw the room reserved for Mr. and Mrs. Streisand when I checked us into this room."

Finn smiles. This isn't the "prom night" room then, thank God. That'd be super awkward.

"We're about to crown the king and queen," Becky tells him.

Kurt and Blaine clap politely as Puck shows off, a la Vanna White, a cardboard square crown cut out from a beer case.

"I tried to talk him out of this, but he wouldn't listen," Kurt informs Finn. "I'm all for the subaltern look, but there's a line."

"It's charming," Blaine chimes in, taking Kurt's hand, and the two chuckle at one another.

"Do I get to vote?"

"No way," Becky says flatly. "You're the man we're sticking it to." Puck gives her a high five.

Finn puts his hands together, licking his lips, feeling awkward. But he'll tough this out.

For Mr. and Mrs. Streisand.

"Hold on with the coronation! I'm almost done!" Rachel voice calls.

"You looked perfect when I left! Why do you insist on so many hair brush strokes?" Kurt calls to her.

It isn't long, though, before she comes out in a totally glamorous, strapless flesh-colored dress (or cream—which was what she instructed him to look for in flower and corsage—in case she felt like coming to the dance), and she looked amazing.

Without thinking, Finn says, "I'm engaged to the most beautiful woman in the world."

Rachel blushes deeply. Then he sees that she's noticed the corsage, and he stumbles across the room to put it on her.

Puck and Becky are crowned king and queen, and they both have speeches ready and everything. Though impressed, Finn isn't really paying attention. With Rachel in his lap, he's too busy kissing at her shoulder and collar bone. And, in response to his attention, Rachel caresses his hands in her lap with her fingers, and her breathing gets deep.

When the ceremony is over, they—and he thought he saw Kurt and Blaine leave, but he wasn't all "there," you know—slip to their hotel room.

Their hotel room.

With a lascivious smile, and calling him "Mr. Hudson-Berry," (something she started doing to let him know she was in the mood—not like he needed that hint, this time) Rachel practically climbs Finn once he has the door shut. In between kisses as Finn gets them to the bed, Rachel says, "I know it was dumb to put the dress on first, but I wanted the first thing you saw of me today to be in that dress."

In response, Finn kisses her fiercely against the bed, done with words. His hand is pushed down by Rachel until it gets to her lower thigh. His thumb almost reaches the entire span of her thigh, and when he comes in contact with her inner thigh, he feels her shiver.

She was nice and all, leading him like that—but he can take it from there.

After a few ghost-touches on her inner thigh, his hand travels to the bottom of her dress and starts hiking it up. The minute his finger touches her warm lower thigh, they both seem to shudder in anticipation. At virtually the same time, she props her legs onto his lower back, and she's practically clawing at his back, and he's so turned on, he's seeing double. Despite the impaired vision, he has her panties off in few minutes, and he's working on her zipper…

When his phone vibrates in his pocket.

"Was that …?" Rachel asks, astounded.

"My phone," he says, then shocking himself that he was able to even speak.

"Oh," Rachel says, turning beet red, and it's so adorable, he has to kiss her nose—then she reaches to pull his pants down—then the phone in his pocket vibrates again as it's pressed between his and her legs.

"What if it's Quinn?" Rachel asks.

"It can wait."

Vibrates again.

"I don't want her to think we've abandoned her cause," Rachel says, sitting up and setting her back against the headboard.

Finn sighs as he flops himself onto his side. He shimmies his pants up to retrieve the phone. Of course, it's vibrating again! (Months of experience in dating Quinn come back to him—and of course, it's Quinn) There are three messages from her, and Finn reads them out loud:

"Where are you?

If you come late, it'll look bad.

Are you even DRESSED yet?"

Finn can't help but scoff bitterly at the irony of the last one. He just wants to be with Rachel! Not be Quinn's sidekick when he has his own date! Or he could have his own date…

And, god, he is so hard, and the way she's breathing right now, sitting up with the cleavage pushed up and little perspiration making her collarbone area glisten. He just wants to pull the dress down and figure out the zipper later.

"She has a point," Rachel concedes.

Finn could swear Rachel's skin is glowing.

"Go. Everything is all right."

After a lingering kiss and a few moments of imploring her to come to the dance eventually, Finn leaves the Mr. and Mrs. Streisand Suite.

When Finn gets to the dance, he sees a Cheerio rushing to the stage with a dinosaur head.

That'll have to do for a cold shower.

Finn takes his phone out to start texting Rachel to ask her if she's changed her mind. He's kinda confused why Rachel wore that dress when she didn't seem to plan to ever come that night. Did she really go through all that trouble just for that one moment when he saw her? He's hoping it also means he gets to hold her body close to his in a dance later and gently stroke her bare back with his thumb. To get to kiss her bare collar bone some more.

Then he's jolted out of his fantasies when Brittany, dressed like she just came out of The Flintstones, starts singing. He's snapped out of it enough that he decides to find Quinn, and after finding Joe, he does find her. She's tough to find while in that chair. That must be another thing that sucks about being handicapped. No one sees you.

In between songs, he and Joe practice. It takes Joe a while before he admits he'd be more comfortable carrying the chair than Quinn. Quinn smiles affectionately at how badly Joe wants to carry her but knows Finn is stronger.

He and Quinn make the rounds and talk with people when the voting booth opens—until he gets a text from Rachel. Her message announces that she's coming, after all, and he waits for her by the entrance like a dork, bobbing his ankle up and down in excitement.

The moment she walks in, he takes her hand, and they walk under the (prehistoric) flower arch. He smiles because it feels like he's finally arriving at the dance, too. His senior prom can officially begin.

He and Rachel dance for a few numbers, and a slow dance comes on. He pulls Rachel's body close to his. He breathes in her hair as her head rests in the crook between his chin and chest. When he places a kiss on her shoulder (he wasn't sure it was possible for him to reach, but he manages it pretty well), she kisses his hand in return. His whole body is practically buzzing.

"Finn! The voting booths will close soon! We have to make the rounds!" Quinn calls out to him, wheeled over by Joe, who looks as reluctant to do this as Finn feels.

Rachel looks disappointed, too, but she nods and smiles at Quinn.

"A few rounds" turn into five songs in a row, and he is so relieved when Santana shows up, telling them that the booths had closed.

"Time to count skullcaps, sweet cheeks," she says as she takes the handles of the wheelchair, and Finn wonders if he should stop inviting Santana to play video games with him, 'cause her way of talking was already scary before she got into warlord talk.

Anyway, he stets out to find Rachel, free at last!

But he's stopped by Artie.

"Hey, man, how's prom?" Finn greets.

"Finn, I have some pressing news, and it involves your queen."

Finn doesn't like the way he says that—in fact, he doesn't like how everyone but him and Rachel thinks him running with Quinn for royalty is completely expected—he didn't expect it! But he holds his tongue. He nods to encourage Artie to keep talking.

"Quinn can walk!"

\"What?"

"I saw her lift up one of her legs to scratch her feet in those damn heels when she thought no one was looking! From how easy it looked for her to do that, I'd say she's been able to walk for a t least a week. And it all makes sense. I've heard her tell Joe she didn't need him to come with her to physical therapy anymore—and stupidly, I thought it was because she had gotten over Bob Marley, but now she's at prom with him."

Finn grinds his teeth. This whole night—this whole week—Quinn has been coming between them, using them and faking it.

And speak of the devil.

"Hey, Artie! Finn," Quinn greets as she comes up to the former football buddies, and instead of replying, Artie leaves, shaking his head.

"You used Rachel," Finn says, evenly, still processing that he was duped. "You used me. You're lying to all of us for a plastic crown?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Like hell you don't. Stand up!"

"Finn!" Rachel practically shrieks as Sue and Joe both approach. "What are you doing?"

"Stand up, Quinn! Show Rachel what a good friend you are," Finn says, voice dripping with sarcasm, plowing through Quinn's protests of "Finn .. Finn .. Oka—okay."

Then she stands up.

Finn sees Rachel's face fall, and it's like Sitting Shiva and NYADA all over again.

Or rather, resurfaced.

"Why?" Rachel asks, simply.

Suddenly, Finn feels guilty—responsible for the reveal and the hurt that caused it. Putting salt into Rachel's wounds. Maybe he should have kept this from her, just so he wouldn't have to break her heart again.

"I'm sorry," Quinn says, starting to cry.

"Do you have any idea what you mean to me? I thought we were friends, Quinn," Rachel says, her voice barely above a whisper—and he realizes the song had stopped, and they hadn't started playing the next.

"We are! It's just—if I told you, I may as well've told everyone. I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I just wanted to inspire some people."

Finn can't help but roll his eyes as Rachel stands and stares at the girl who stands before her, completely dumbstruck.

"Just wait, Rachel. I promise I didn't ruin your night. I'm sorry I kept you and Finn apart."

She leaves, and Finn wonders if she's talkinga bout tonight or their lives, in general.

"This year is really starting to suck," Rachel says thickly.

Finn takes her hands in his and asks for one more dance. "Then we can go and watch A Star is Born. Or whatever you wanna do."

"Okay."

Finn's glad when he hears "All My Life" by K-C and JoJo start playing. He wasn't feeling like a peppy dance song. He rubs her back as the work their way into the crowd.

But the song is stopped, interrupted by Principal Figgins's stuttering.

"And now for the crowning of prom royalty. Will the candidates please come onstage?"

Finn holds Rachel more tightly, and they slow dance to no music.

"All candidates. Please," he drones.

Rachel and Finn keep dancing.

"Okay, well, prom king and queen are Finn Hudson, and by write-in vote, Rachel Berry. Otherwise known as Finchel."

Rachel and Finn stop moving. They stare at one another then at everyone staring at them.

"Now will you come to the stage, Mr. Hudson?"

With Rachel's hand clasped on his, Finn started walking up to the stage, grinning, and wondering how this happened.

Rachel resists.

He turns around, and he sees she looks petrified and won't budge.

"Finn, what if this is a prank? Like-like last year. Okay, I do not want to have to go home and wash pig's blood out of my hair!" she exclaims.

He puts his face close to hers and says in a low voice, "Rachel, you're popular now. The way you've been all over me this week, they didn't get why you weren't on the ballot and wrote you in. You—you haven't been slushied since Sophomore year. You starred in a sold-out musical. And you were tied with Brittany in the race for president before you dropped out."

"I'm … popular?"

"Totally," Finn asserts.

"I guess you're right. I haven't been treated like I was, and—"\

"Engaged teens, do you want me to—"

"We're coming!" Finn calls out, and he starts to wave a hand so Principal Figgins would see him before he realizes that's not necessary.

Rachel's eyes glisten as much as her tiara when she sees how everyone is smiling at them. It's finally hit her that she is totally likeable, and the school realizes it now.

The making out and showing that they're a super hot couple probably helped, too.

Then he holds her tightly as they dance, avoiding looking at Quinn, which is really easy because he is gaining a new appreciation for Rachel's back, and he has no idea why he's ever wanna look or pull away from her.

When the dance is wrapping up, Rachel agrees to talk with Quinn in the hallway. Finn waits for her at the parking lot entrance after telling Kurt and Blaine, who are leaving, that he'll take Rachel home (they drove her). When she comes back, she looks happier, and Finn's glad—though he really hopes Quinn is getting her act together for Rachel.

When he opens the passenger door of his truck, he takes her hand, kisses it, and says, "My queen."

Rachel giggles.

"Let's go back to our room. We have it until eleven tomorrow."

Finn smiles to her, and when she's inside the truck, he does his little Getting Laid dance to the driver's seat side of the truck. When he climbs in, she still has the same smile on her face she had before his dance.

"One condition."

"Hmm?"

"You're allowed to take everything off, Finn… Everything—except this tiara."

"Yes, majesty."